A cross cultural comparison of sedentary behavior of African and European youth
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The study of sedentary behavior in rural Africa children and adolescents is scarce, and the goal of this research was to compare the sedentary behavior and light physical activities (LPA) between a rural sample from Mozambican school aged youth (6 to 16 years old) with their European peers, namely from Portugal.
Methods: The sample comprises 146 Mozambican (MZ) and 195 Portuguese (PT) youth of both gender, and was split in 3 age groups (6–8yrs; 9–11yrs; 12–16yrs). The Actigraph model 7164 was used to obtain information marking daily PA and sedentary behaviours during 7 consecutive days in PT, and 1 only day in MZ (due to operational and logistic problems). Data files from all participants were screened by detecting blocks of consecutive zeros. Periods with 60 minutes of consecutive zeros were detected and flagged as times in which the monitor was not worn. Participants had to have at least 10 hours of data to count as a valid day. After complete screening, the raw activity “counts” were processed for time spent in the different PA intensities computations. Sedentary behavior was defined as PA with energy expenditure at the level of 1.0–1.5 metabolic equivalent units (METs). LPA was defined as PA with energy expenditure at the level of 1.6–2.9 METs. Puyau regression equation was used to determine the cut-points for PA intensities. Sedentary behavior was identified using a cut-point of <670 counts.min-1, and LPA using a cut-point of >670 and <3003 counts.min-1
Results: Mozambican rural school aged sample showed, at all age-groups and gender, an accentuated lower time spent in daily sedentary activities with a magnitude of difference around 1.5 higher for PT (Boys: MZ=370.9±78.2 vs PT=590.8±81.9; Girls: MZ=389.4±90.5 vs PT=596.2±86.2; F=493.7; p=0.0000). Using country, age and sex as factors, no statistically significant interactions were found. By turn, time spent in light activities were higher in MZ (Boys: MZ=197.5±47.9 vs PT=157.9±42.7; Girls: MZ=211.8±56.0 vs PT=158.9±47.7; F=66.7; p<0.001) in a magnitude of 1.3 higher for MZ. No significant interactions (p>0.05) were observed.
Conclusions: Based on simultaneous observational studies, a significant higher time spent in light activities and less in sedentary behavior from the MZ rural school aged population may to be related to survival households activities, long distance walks and outdoor games still present in African rural areas.
